The Liberal Democrats at their conference this weekend passed a motion celebrating 70 years of the NHS and the vital work of NHS staff.

Looking ahead to the challenges it will face in the future, we have also passed several new initiatives to tackle the challenges facing the NHS and social care and ensure they can continue delivering vital treatment and care for generations to come.

At Spring Conference in Southport, it was overwhelmingly agreed that the party would hold a review of the current capture, use and ownership of health data, with a view to making recommendations that balance the principles of assisting medical research, protecting the privacy of patients, and guarding against any unjustified concentration of data ownership.

A commitment to introducing additional resources to allow Mental Health Support Teams to be made available in all schools by 2019 was also passed.

Thirdly, to introduce a national scheme of preventative blood pressure monitoring run by community pharmacies.

Speaking from the Conference, Health Spokesperson for the LibDems in the West Midlands, Lee Dargue, praised the ambitious plan to safeguard and improve the NHS and Care services:

"The NHS came into being 70 years ago, after being designed by the great Liberal William Beveridge. A service free at the point of need, for all, must be protected, so that the NHS can continue providing the vital care that we all rely on, for decades to come."

"The Liberal Democrats know that this will require bold steps which is why we will secure the NHS the funding it needs by raising income tax by a penny in the pound
This has growing public support, and the LibDems are the only Party being open about the funding needed, and where we will find the extra cash.

"We would also re-establish the much-needed student nurse bursaries, and we'll review how the Health and Care sector can best share data securely, to improve health outcomes for all.

"I'm delighted that the Liberal Democrats have a plan to protect our NHS for future generations. A Liberal created the NHS - only the Liberal Democrats can protect it."

Speaking from the Liberal Democrats Conference in Southport, Ladywood Parliamentary Spokesperson, Lee Dargue, criticised the Government's decision to ignore the growing calls for a levy on throwaway cups:

"As with so many other areas in government, the Conservatives refused to accept, and act upon, evidence. The public is increasingly supportive of the Liberal Democrat call for a 25p charge on throwaway cups for coffee - the aim being to increase the use of reusable cups.

"In government, the LibDems broke through resistance from Conservatives to introduce a 5p charge on throwaway shopping bags. Literally billions of shopping bags are now re-used and not immediately thrown away.

"LibDems led the way in government on environmental protection - we will not back down now, despite the best efforts of the Tories to ignore the damaging impact of plastic on our environment."

Birmingham Liberal Democrats are calling for a new Brummie Bus Ticket.

Both the Black Country and Coventry have a Bus ticket covering just their area, but Brummies have to pay for the whole of the West Midlands metropolitan area.

It is simply unfair that Birmingham's bus users are subsidising the rest of the region. We need to have our own Brummie Ticket, that covers just travel within Birmingham and we are calling on Transport for West Midlands to introduce one.